


Behind Closed Doors

by flickawhip



Category: Home Fires (UK TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 08:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickawhip/pseuds/flickawhip
Summary: A What-If.





	Behind Closed Doors

She knows what she is risking, what they are all risking, but she knows she needs not to be alone, not now. Stan is gone, Bryn and Will have died, and they end up alone. Or at least, that is what they let the rest of the village think. She knows that she needs to be careful, but somehow, she knows that, given how far she lives from the majority of the village, she must be the one to hide them all when they need one another. 

It had started out so slowly. Just her, and the occasional, hidden, romance. She was careful, nervous even, and she knew that the girls, the ones she chose, were cautious, dignified and quick to cover for themselves, and her. 

She knows, as the girls leave, that she will be alone, at least, she had been until both Bryn and Will were killed. She had sent Stan away years ago, after he tried to teach her son how to shoot. Now though, alone, she had been wondering if she had made a mistake. Yes, she had been having fun with the Land Girls, but she hadn’t been happy. Not properly anyway, she had never really been able to be fully honest with them. 

She had changed her plans when she first came across Mim alone. Frances and Alison had not told anyone that they had moved on together, Alison had also done her best to encourage Teresa and Annie to face their feelings. She had, almost instantly, known that Mim was not going to survive alone, even with David to help her. 

It had taken longer, long enough for Steph to settle with Mim, for the two to fall in love, and find happiness with one another, before Steph had come across Erica. Erica, who had done her best to keep up her pretence until people wouldn’t see, had been slowly coming undone at the seams. Laura had finally settled down and moved out, and Erica had been left alone, without her daughters or her husband. 

Steph had been the one to bring Erica home. Whilst none of them could speak on what they were feeling, at all, it had been easier for Erica to settle into the same routine that Mim and Steph had made. She felt safer staying with one or the other, but she was able to handle being at home when she knew she had Mim nearby and waiting to take her in if she felt she couldn’t stand to be alone. 

The village had not been aware when other couples formed and they would not know about Steph, Mim or Erica either. Over time, slowly but surely, Frances would come to know what was happening between them, when Alison had discovered the three together, but neither woman had told anyone else, and it had taken Annie walking in on a private discussion between Steph and Mim to find out, and for Theresa to know too. 

It had been Erica who decided it was best to be honest, at least with the others who had become couples, or at least had grown close with one another. Annie and Teresa had been the quickest to adapt, welcoming the three women as friends, although Frances and Alison also had proven to be trustworthy. 

As time passed and people moved on it had become easier to be open. David and then Stan had found wives and moved away, Sarah and her husband had moved eventually, and finally the ladies had been left with the remains of a WI to manage, the rest of the WI, who had eventually found out as time passed and the women had been welcoming, had drifted apart. Soon it was only the seven women, although Annie had, somewhat smartly, suggested that the WI, even the seven, could change to make life easier. To gain more, newer, members and friends. 

It had been no real surprise to find they gained members who were afraid of being open, but also longed to have company who understood. Despite everything, they survived.


End file.
